


a shimmering light

by yeswayappianway



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 08:49:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13143159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeswayappianway/pseuds/yeswayappianway
Summary: The sky is just beginning to turn dark, clear and beautifully colored in a way Matt’s never seen in either Thunder Bay or Pittsburgh.





	a shimmering light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [savedby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/savedby/gifts).



> a holiday present for you <3 i hope you enjoy it
> 
> title from Hotel California by the Eagles

The sky is just beginning to turn dark, clear and beautifully colored in a way Matt’s never seen in either Thunder Bay or Pittsburgh. Flower slows to a crawl at a gate, and reaches out through the open car window to swipe his ID through a card reader. It buzzes, and the gate arm in front of them lifts out of the way jerkily. It’s quiet as Flower drives through, the radio only a low, vaguely distinguishable hum. Matt feels for a moment that he’s slipped into a movie somehow, that maybe the soundtrack will swell and the camera will pan around and they’ll artfully transition into a new and even more otherworldly setting. Instead, the car bounces uncomfortably as they drive off the end of the pavement onto a gravel road winding further into the park. Matt asks, “Do they get a lot of witches out here?”

Flower nods, and keeps looking out the windshield, squinting as they turn slightly toward the sunset, which is now in full bloom. It colors his face a sort of pinkish-gold and Matt wishes he was an artist or at least had a good camera, but he doesn't and he thinks, maybe a little romantically, that it would only ruin the effect. Flower’s cheekbones are striking on a good day, and in this lighting, they’re devastating.

A few more minutes pass as they bump down the road, and then Flower pulls off into a half circle of worn-flat dirt. He’s been uncharacteristically quiet for the last little while. It worries Matt, but he’s also strangely afraid to disturb it. He just follows Flower’s lead, getting out of the car and grabbing the blankets tossed in the back seat. Flower picks up a bag from the other side of the car, and shuts the door. The thump echoes in the rapidly cooling air.

He leads them down what Matt would never have seen, but is recognizably a path, and as they slope up a gentle hill, Matt tries not to think about what’s going on, why Flower has let him come out here but hasn’t said much of anything. They crest the hill, which is taller than Matt realized, and Matt is amazed. Spread out before them is a forest of the twisted, spiky plants he’d seen a few of on the way in. “Joshua trees, right?” he asks.

Flower nods. “Yep. No big tall cactuses here, we’ve got these instead.” He seems to be looking for something, and Matt follows him blindly, the word “we” echoing in his head. Flower picks his way down the other side of the hill, stopping when they're fully surrounded by joshua trees. The tallest is maybe only slightly taller than Matt himself, but the vast distance covered in them makes it seem as isolated as the tallest woods Matt’s ever been in back east.

“Can you spread the blanket out here?” Flower asks, and Matt hurries to do it. He knows Flower won’t mind if he takes his time but he wants to help. Once the blanket is stretched over a patch of ground at the base of one of the trees, Flower opens his bag and sets out three candles in a triangle on it. Stepping into the middle of them, he folds himself down into a sitting position and closes his eyes. Whispering something under his breath, he opens his eyes again as the candles light, and when Matt looks at his face, Flower’s eyes have the same dancing flame in them.

Matt folds the other blanket into quarters and sits down on it a few feet away. He’s seen Flower do his ritual a few times before, but that doesn’t make him any less worried about somehow messing it up. Matt’s own magic is smaller and quieter, and he was taught to see it as a quality in himself to be trained and studied and used very precisely in practiced applications. Flower’s is different.

Matt can hear Flower reciting his incantation. He’d asked, once, what language it was, expecting Latin or Greek, the classical languages part of his study alongside magical techniques, but Flower had laughed. “Nothing that fancy,” he’d said, “just French, but like, Shakespeare-era French.” Now, he can pick out an occasional word and the sounds are familiar and comforting. Matt slips into the measured breath he associates with meditation as Flower’s voice gets louder.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Matt can see a gold glow coalescing. When he turns his head, it moves with him, always hovering just out of sight. Flower’s eyes are closed again, and he reaches out with both hands to press them onto the dirt just past the edge of the blanket. The few little plants around his hands perk up, growing as if in a time-lapse video. Matt recognizes the phrase Flower’s saying as the usual ending of his incantation, and Flower repeats it. On the third repetition, there’s a noise like a very small thunderclap, the plants abruptly stop growing, and the glow at the periphery of Matt’s vision flashes much brighter.

The glow fades away quickly, and Matt sees the candles have gone out. Flower is looking at him, the flames flickering in his eyes gone and his expression is warm. He stands up and pats the joshua tree behind him. Matt realizes it’s the same way he thanks his goalposts and is suddenly overwhelmed with fondness.

“Sorry I wasn’t very social on the way out, it’s been a little while since I did this, I was a little overfull.” Flower’s picking up the candles, and putting them back in his bag, but he seems back to his normal talkative self.

“What do you mean, overfull?” Matt asks.

Flower blinks, taken aback. “Ah, you didn’t know?” Matt’s not sure what he’s meant to know, so he supposes that no, he doesn’t, and shakes his head. “It’s… you know in the winter, when you brush against something soft and then you touch something metal and it zaps you?”

Matt says, “Like, static electricity?” Flower snaps his fingers.

“Yes, that. My magic is… like that, sort of. It builds up, and builds up, and if I let it go too long, it jumps out on its own, so every once in a while, I need to go somewhere and-”

“Zap something?” Matt offers, smiling.

Grinning back, Flower nods. “Yeah. It’s best outside, where I can’t break anything that won’t grow back, and- it just feels better that way. It was… very different when I first came here. I got very used to being outside in Pittsburgh, the rivers and the weather.” He’s staring into the distance, like he can see the rivers if he looks hard enough. Matt doesn’t want to break the moment, so he sits and lets Flower take his time. “I was taught that magic is just another form of energy that comes from nature, so it’s always made sense to me that everything around me would change how my magic showed up, but I didn’t know how much.” He trails off. “Sorry, you probably didn’t want a magics lesson, especially since it’s so different for you.”

Before, if you’d asked him, Matt would have said that he had maybe a vague interest in magics. Now, as Flower talks, Matt’s never been more fascinated with something. “No, it’s so cool,” he exclaims. “It’s interesting _because_ it’s different, and besides, I like hearing you talk about it.”

“Charmer,” Flower says accusingly, but he’s blushing a little, and if Matt weren’t already impossibly gone on him, he would be now. “There’s not much else to say, I think. It’s been a little longer than I’d like since I’ve been out here, so I needed to do this, and… I wanted you here.”

Matt’s not sure what to say to that. Flower’s always been sneakily private with his magic- sure, he’d use it to prank you in the locker room, but he didn’t often answer questions or share anything about it- so Matt feels like he’s been given something precious with this. “That means a lot to me, thank you.”

Flower looks at him, more serious than usual, just studying his face. Whatever he sees makes him wave his hand and say, “C’mere. And bring the blanket. We’re going to cuddle and look at the sky, it’ll be very cheesy.” Matt laughs. God, he’s missed this.

He does bring the blanket over, spreading it out overlapping with Flower’s so they have space to lie back. Flower leans back first, stretching out so that his head is almost at the base of the joshua tree. He pats the space by his side, and Matt joins him. It’s just beginning to get really dark, so there are no stars yet, but the sky is a beautiful dark blue over their heads, and the sunset is fading out past their feet.

It’s very quiet, but Matt can hear the little noises of wind and bugs and the rustling of plants. After a moment, Flower confesses softly, “I like it here.” Matt props himself up on one elbow and looks down at him.

“Good! You should like it here. I mean, I miss you, obviously, I miss you so much and nothing feels right yet, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be happy. You know that, right?” Flower wasn’t looking at him at first, but he is now, and Matt knows he can be intense sometimes, but it’s important that Flower _gets_ this. “And it doesn’t have to just be hockey, it can be whatever you like about being here.” Flower stares at him for a second, and then reaches out to pull Matt down into a kiss.

When they break apart, he leans in, his forehead against Matt’s as if they were touching helmets after a game, and says roughly, “What am I going to do with you?”

Matt smiles, and presses a kiss to Flower’s cheek. “Well, I think I was promised cheesy stargazing.” He feels Flower’s laugh as well as hears it.

“You were, weren’t you? I think that can be arranged.” Matt lets himself be rearranged, and they end up lying down again, Matt’s head on Flower’s chest. “There,” says Flower, pointing up. The sky has gotten even darker, although it’s still very deeply colored, and as Matt lets his eyes adjust, he sees the stars. At the corner of his eye, he sees a very faint gold glow and he smiles. 


End file.
